


pieces of twilight slipping through my hands

by jeien



Category: Ultraman Mebius
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Other, Post-Canon, Post-Ghost Reverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-10 00:12:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18927376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeien/pseuds/jeien
Summary: He had wondered, briefly, when the brilliance of the Land of Light became too bright for him to handle.[Chinese]





	pieces of twilight slipping through my hands

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kizunagatari](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kizunagatari/gifts).
  * Translation into 中文 available: [【中文翻译】pieces of twilight slipping through my hands/暮色于我掌中淌过](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20318095) by [8759362](https://archiveofourown.org/users/8759362/pseuds/8759362)



> happy anniversary darling
> 
> Edit: Thanks again to the amazing [8759362](https://archiveofourown.org/users/8759362/pseuds/8759362) for translating this into Chinese!

There are Earth insects called fireflies. During the night, their light ebbs and flows not unlike their color timers. At one point, there had been a small nebula of them out in the open field by Phoenix Nest, soft pulses of light coming and going like the stars and the planets beyond this one inhabited by humans. He had been told that, sometimes, humans would catch them and place them in glass jars. A simply beautiful prison to house a fleeting thing.

Mebius enters the humble planet in the thick of the evening, made human once more. He is far from Phoenix Nest or any settlement, any familiarity, but he winds up in a field nonetheless with no breeze and the vague acknowledgement of wildlife.

He sees a weak glow. Slowly, he follows the trail of in-and-out pulses with a hand outstretched until the glow hovers over his palm. 

He has no jar to catch it with.

 

* * *

 

He had wondered, briefly, when the brilliance of the Land of Light became too bright for him to handle.

“I would like to visit Earth.”

His brothers had been taken aback by the request, as well as Ultra Father—not by the actual request made, but by the lack of force behind it. It had been small and hollow not unlike the stray debris of asteroid and space rocks floating aimlessly within, around, beyond their universe. Their cautious silence had become too much and he hadn’t waited for an answer before he walked out of the Space Garrison Headquarters, knowing they’ll more than likely reject it. They had a duty to uphold. He had not been so naïve as to forget that. 

 

* * *

 

“It was like this before,” he says to the firefly—to someone long gone, to someone recently lost, to himself, to no one at all. “You in my hand. Not even a brief second before you...”

The glow disappears. Mebius hears the insect move away.

A sigh leaves his lips as he sits on the grass. The pulse doesn’t come back.

 

* * *

 

He later discovered that his sojourn to Earth had been approved. Hikari had personally vouched for him: _Mebius is young and inexperienced in dealing with such complicated losses, so please allow him this_.

“Time with your friends will help,” Hikari had told him.

Mebius had unclasped his red cloak. “I’m not visiting GUYS.”

He had turned his back and ran, kicking off into the air and soaring out of their planet before Hikari could stop him.

 

* * *

 

“Specks like those will always fade away.”

He’s suddenly alert, scrambling to his feet and on guard in a defensive stance. Mebius darts his eyes around until it latches onto a figure veiled by shadow. The silhouette is human, or at least human-passing. Their voice is deep, a little rough and rhythmic in a way that unnervingly calms him, as they say, “Allies, comrades, friends, cherished ones... Life itself is the same.”

“Who are you?” Mebius asks.

The figure doesn’t answer. The firefly’s light moves towards them and, in turn, they move to meet it. In an instant, as the glow pulses to life, the figure’s hand swipes over it and effectively snuffs it out. 

His heart lurches. He’s ready to demand answers when the figure opens his hand.

“They will die,” the figure says as the firefly’s glow sputters to life once more, “and perhaps, by virtue or happenstance, they will be made new like how I was made new.”

The moonlight passes over them. Tall and broad-shouldered, garbed in dark layers of human clothing and long hair tied high behind his head. A covering over one eye. An antiquated way of speaking.

Mebius nearly lets his arms fall. With a quiet voice, with a trace of a wish, he calls out, “Zamusha?”

The figure scoffs. “You’re still so naïve, Mebius, to drop your guard over something like that. This is why your comrades always have to cover for you.”

 

* * *

 

The resemblance hadn’t been lost on him, when they had first met. Everything aligned too well: mannerisms, aspirations, appearances. Even the names were just shy of being exactly the same. He had swallowed the urge and moved forward in his mission, simply relishing in the happiness that somehow, there was a being who could exist even as an evocation of a fallen friend.

And then—

 _I’m glad I met you_.

The first time, he managed to hold that small little speck of fragmented light in his palm. That time, he was the one being held.

They were assurances both times, testaments of these warriors who had found their own strengths in the very end.

Yet the loss had left him empty all the same.

 

* * *

 

It barely registers that he’s crying.

Mebius looks straight at Zamusha, who is clearly at a loss and politely not meeting his gaze for lack of what to do. If Mebius knew any better, he would even go as far as to say that Zamusha was flustered.

“How?” is all he manages to whisper.

A sigh leaves Zamusha’s lips. “I don’t know. I woke up in the planet you loved so much and merely decided to stay in it.”

He doesn’t have a jar to catch a firefly’s light.

It doesn’t stop Mebius from running to Zamusha and catching him in his arms. He will let this new ember burn brighter and brighter between them until it can challenge the sun, the moon, the Plasma Spark in terms of brilliance.

And that brilliance is something Mebius will always be happily overtaken by.

**Author's Note:**

> come scream with me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jeienb/)


End file.
